It’s time for the dreaded Top 10 list – an annual practice among film critics and cinephiles alike that produces fretful hand-wringing and obsessive film-watching – all in the hopes of finding the very “best” films of a given year. Of course, it’s impossible to deliver a list that’s perfect. There are too many films in the year, too many conflicting opinions, to create a list impervious to criticism. By nature of ranking, some beloved films must be deprioritized or bumped out altogether in the hopes of creating a more perfect representation of the films one loved the most.
As a result, some titles have been forgotten.Whit Stillmanmade his first nearly perfect film in a decade with the goofy and luxeLove & Friendship.Andrea Arnolddelivered a deeply felt American epic studded with gobsmacking performances inAmerican Honey.Anton Yelchingave one of his last (and most flooring) appearances inJeremy Saulnier’svicious and gorgeousGreen Room, andPablo Larrainrevolutionized the biopic withJackie. And while all of these films (and more, I would be remiss to leave outHell or High Water, Arrival, The Nice Guys, Hail, Caesar!, Krisha, andThe Fitsto name a few) deserve to be in the running for the “best” of the year, I humbly present my personal favorites: the best films of 2016.
10) Manchester by the Sea
Easily the two most punishing hours of cinema you’ll watch this year,Manchester by the Seadelivers crushing blows of ennui and existential dread amidst thoughtfully realized mundanity that ripple and pucker the narrative like muffled gasps in between sobs. But there’s a lot to like inManchester– it’s as frequently funny as it is emotionally disruptive – and it’s easily Lonergan’s best sinceYou Can Count on Me(and perhaps the best of his entire career). Much talk has been paid toCasey Affleck’slead performance, a performance so gutting that it’s impossible to discount even in the midst of his questionable personal life, but it’sLucas Hedges(who’s also become part ofWes Anderson’s film ensembles sinceMoonrise Kingdom) who might deliver the most triumphant performance. Uneasy to shake and disturbingly real, Manchester by the Sea is the sort of film that takes root in your mind upon first viewing, allowing its tendrils to slowly unfurl in the days and weeks after.
9) No Home Movie
Chantal Akermanspent the better part of 40 years quietly producing cinematic masterpieces – and while her experimental narrative filmJeanne Dielmannstill receives most of its cinephile lauding, it’s her avant-garde documentaryNews from Homethat remains my personal favorite.No Home Movie, which premiered in the US just hours after her death, is a thoughtful combination of those two prior works, as a careful chronology of Akerman’s own relationship with her mother – a woman whose history as a survivor of Auschwitz seems to have prompted her to create a modern prison for herself: her own home. Akerman, who tragically passed away last year, documents her mother here, delivering an aching final bookend of her career with echoes of both her documentary work andDielmann, that would be overwhelmingly sad if it weren’t for Akerman’s persistent affection and artful direction. It’s unfair that this film be her last, but it would be hard to find a more perfect ending to her cinematic journey.
8) Silence
Martin Scorsese’slatest is a bit of a thinker. Far less easily likable than masterful romps likeThe AviatorandThe Wolf of Wall Street,Silenceseems destined to be one of Scorsese’s less popular features, but it wears the passion of its filmmaker daringly on its sleeve. While frequently difficult to watch, it’s difficult not to marvel at Scorsese’s utter commitment to his subject matter, and despite its occasionally explosive violence,Silencereveals an underrated contemplative serenity at its core. You won’t leave the theater precisely sure of your feelings on what just transpired, but it’s absolutely no question that Scorsese has made youfeelvery deeply indeed.
7) Certain Women
If we’re being honest, any filmmaker who constructed a narrative in whichMichelle Williams,Kristen StewartandLaura Dern, are given freedom to play as they wish onscreen, would more than pique my interest. But in the hands ofKelly Reichardt, the hushed but confident voice behindWendy and LucyandRiver of Grass,Certain Womenturns its already golden cast into a sumptuous exploration of American female identity, edged in the frost of regret and warmed by the gorgeous persistence of love. Weaving together three loosely tied narratives,Certain Womenmakes spectacle out of subtlety, and is fabulously anchored by the four lead performances of Dern, Williams, Stewart and astonishing newcomerLily Gladstone, a painfully lonely charmer known simply as “The Rancher”. In an industry utterly stuffed with diverse and specific masculine narratives,Certain Womenis a heartbreaking, feminine oasis.
6) The Invitation
After the negative press parade that accompanied her collaboration withDiablo CodyforJennifer’s Body,Karyn Kusama(who previously landed on audiences’ radars thanks toGirl Fight), took a break from film to pursue a smaller scale career in television. But it would be difficult to find a better argument for her comeback thanThe Invitation, her first feature film since 2008, and an edgy, subversive chamber piece with a roiling, violent center. Thanks to an incredibly limited theatrical release and a VOD treatment,The Invitationwent unseen by many when it hit earlier this year, but short ofRobertEggers’The Witch, the chiller is easily the best horror film of the year, as Kusama (aided by a sharp-witted script penned by her husband and his writing partner,Phil HayandMatt Manfredi) carefully weaves in the painful realities of grief with dark and shocking interpersonal violence. The film holds its cards, withholding hints of violence or foreboding musical cues until the last possible second, delivering a finale to keep even horror hounds with vicious appetites happy, with style and confidence to spare.
5) Toni Erdmann
I must admit that despiteMaren Ade’s15+ years in the film industry, I had never seen any of the filmmaker’s output until her gloriously funny and humaneToni Erdmann. ButErdmann, a deeply hilarious exploration of the relationship between a harried, corporate woman and her eccentric (and very possibly insane) father who attempts to infiltrate her life as a life coach under the name “Toni Erdmann”, confidently heralds a sharply insightful and deeply relatable voice in Ade. To attempt to representErdmannto someone who has yet had the pleasure of watching it (so far its release schedule has been all but prohibitive to casual viewers) is to sell it short, as Ade’s latest is more hilarious, moving, devastating and entertaining with each narrative turn. It’s not often that an art film can go down just as easily as a light comedic romp, but Ade manages – for something as truly transcendent as it is deeply empathetic.
4) The Witch
The Witch, a profoundly terrifying and luxurious period piece embedded in subversive gender representation, is the first feature from production designer Robert Eggers. But his careful, meticulous genre touch that elevates the feature from chilling oddity to absolute masterpiece (and guarantees that we’ve only begun to understand the young director’s burgeoning talent). Rare is a horror film that’s as gorgeous to look at as it is deeply morally complex also happens to easily be the most terrifying film of the year, but the film’s confident and spot-on realization of a time in American history rarely represented onscreen ensures that what unfolds over the course of the film’s lean runtime feels chillingly real. (Many shouts toAnya Taylor-Joy’sstar-making performance here, too.) Light on the violence but heavy on the kinds of moments that will forever leave a mark on your movie-going soul,The Witchcreeps in like a kind of cinematic sickness, and leaves with a haunting, dying wail.
Considering the star has faithfully turned in fantastic work multiple times a year since she began her career 45 years ago, it’s ambitious to call any ofIsabelle Huppert’sperformances “defining”. But withElle, a curious and deliciously subversive pitch dark comedy fromPaul Verhoeven, Huppert easily delivers her most complex, layered and masterful sinceMichael Haneke’sThe Piano Teacher.Never careful to offend and always roguishly perverse,Ellebegins with the depiction of a horribly brutal rape (first framed as comedy thanks to a lingering close-up on the nonplussed face of her pet cat) and never fails to up its provocateur quotient even as the film begins to confront hard and sickening realities of modern day culture. It’s hard to know ifEllewould work without Huppert’s virtuosic performance (though it is safe to say thatEllewould not exist without her), it’s the film’s brilliant ease that we can thank the actress for, and its daring impenitence, Verhoeven.
2) La La Land
Believe the hype. After the skilful musical tour de force ofWhiplash, anticipation was high forDamien Chazelle’ssong-filled follow up, but it’s with no ambivalence that I sayLa La Landis easily Chazelle’s best, most self-assured and deceptively deep. Easily cementingEmma StoneandRyan Goslingas old souls with new rhythm and delivering on a score that ranges from rousing (at worst) and transcendent (at best),La La Landis pure cinematic magic from start to finish. To the critics: I can’t say if my reception of the film would be a few ticks cooler if the year had been even slightly less doom and gloom, but I can say that leaving the theater afterLa La Landis like leaving the theater in love – and it would be a far heavier crime to ignore that than to praise it.
1) Moonlight
Almost a decade ago, a 29-year-old first-timer made a curious, black-and-white film calledMedicine for Melancholy,a daring, thoughtful film that sensitively probed the burgeoning the inherent whiteness and classism of hipster culture in San Francisco. That first-timer wasBarry Jenkins, a young man with a big voice but a shocking dearth of celluloid follow-ups. But with 2016 cameMoonlight, a gorgeous, affecting, and wholly necessary film about a young queer black man that, despite its occasional darkness, is simply the warmest and most generous of the year. Collecting moments rather than subsisting on ideas,Moonlightis an unconventional spin on the coming of age format that gleams with masterful performances and the kind of raw sentimentality that allows every character in the film (no matter how troubled) their own right to personhood. It’s sharply written and even more sharply observed, but as soft-hearted as its deeply human, opaque protagonist. Everyone glows inMoonlight, even when their sky might be mottled with clouds.
Honorable mentions (in no particular order):Love & Friendship,American Honey,Green Room,Jackie,Hell or High Water, Arrival, The Nice Guys, Hail, Caesar!, The Handmaiden, Krisha, andThe Fits.
For more of our Best of 2016 coverage,click hereor on the links below.
